Muted:

A half an hour drive seemed longer when Bex was being berated by Stiles. She was healing slowly, but Stiles still insisted on driving her home. However, his concern for her didn't waver his anger. He knew that she never turned. She had practiced with Scott many times, turning made her stronger, quicker, but she didn't and got her hurt. "Are you even listening to a single word that I just said?" He flailed his hands up as they parked in front of her house.

"I get it. I've heard you. Is my sentencing done yet?" Bex sighed.

"No!" He exclaimed.

Bex opened the door to the Jeep and made her way to the back of her house. She could hear her aunt was still awake and the last thing that she wanted was her to be concerned about the blood dripping down her leg., of course, followed her. "You can't keep ignoring me."

"I'm not ignoring you. I'm tired and I don't feel like being berated any longer than I currently am. Good night." She replied shortly as she began climbing the drain pipe to her bedroom. She winced at the pressure she put on her leg. As soon as she climbed through her window, she heard Stiles follow her. Bex peered out of the window. "You're going to break your leg."

He looked up insulted. "How hard could it be?" At that moment he slipped, but caught himself. "I'm fine."

Bex rolled her eyes moving away from the window as he managed to haul himself up into her bedroom. "Just keep quiet, nearly everyone is asleep."

"Bex, this is serious." Stiles told her, worried.

She turned away from him walking into her closet to change. It was silent for a little while, but she could still hear him muttering under his breath. "I'm not leaving, you know."

"Sadly, yes, I do know that." She walked out of the closet.

Stiles grabbed her arm, making her look at him. "Why didn't you turn? Bex, you could've been killed. Don't you get that? You could've died!"

"I can't do it! I can't turn! If I do…..I can't see it! They'll be blue and that means that I'm a murderer. That I am a killer!" She snapped back tears prickling in her eyes as she turned away from him. Stiles stopped for a moment, watching her. All of her fear and denial was finally coming out. She didn't want to be like Peter, she didn't want to be someone like him. She didn't want to be a monster. If she ever turned out like that, she didn't know what she would do.

"Bex, look at me. Look at me." He cupped her face. She closed her eyes. "Hey, hey, you're talking to the guy who had an evil japanese demon inside of him.

"You don't know what happened." She breathed out looking away.

"You're not a murderer, Bex. I know that." Stiles said firmly. Bex felt a few tears leave her eyes. Stiles cupped her cheek making her look at him. "You're not. I promise you that." He pulled her into his chest. She heard his heart beat steadily, he meant his words. Bex breathed him in. He was familiar, he was her best friend. She loved him and knowing that he didn't think she was a monster was enough for now. "Are you going to be okay?" He asked after a while.

Bex hesitated, about to nod and assure him, but she needed him. "Um, will you just stay with me tonight?" She asked, shyly. "Just to sleep."

Stiles looked taken aback. "Uh s-sure, of course. Why not?" Stiles glanced at the bed. "Just um tell me where you want me. Not like that, but um, I can just sleep on the floor." He grabbed a blanket as she drew back the covers.

Bex smiled watching him. "Stiles, get in the bed. It's not like I haven't slept over before." It was true. Some night when they were up studying late, she would crash at his house. The sheriff knew that nothing was going on between them so he allowed it, especially when Scott was studying with them, but this was different. There was a new tension in the air.

He smiled nervously. "Thanks." Bex got in on her side and Stiles got in on the left. Bex was settled with her back to him, staring at the clock. "Stiles?"

"Yeah?" He lifted his head up as Bex turned around to face him. "What's wrong?"

"Did you mean what you said, that you didn't think I was a monster?" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but he was close enough to hear the vulnerability in her voice. Stiles meant everything to her. If he thought that she was a monster, she would never forgive myself.

Stiles leaned over gently kissing her. "You could never be a monster." He promised. Bex smiled weakly at her best friend as she laid her head on the cool pillow. She fell asleep listening to his steady breathing. Perhaps things would start looking up.

xxxxx

Things had returned to normal after a few days, well as normal as Beacon Hills could be for a bunch of supernatural teenagers. Stiles had taken to driving Bex to school again. He had been a loyal friend through everything. He could even start to see some of the old Bex again coming back. They separated as Stiles went to the lacrosse field with Scott and she walked to her locker with Lydia before math class. "You looked exhausted." Lydia noted. "A little concealer would do wonder for the bags under your eyes."

Bex rolled her eyes. "Thanks, really."

She shrugged. 'I'm just saying, a little makeup never hurts." She said as she closed her locker door. "You look exhausted."

"I am a little. Stiles has been staying over."

"Oh really?" Lydia raised her eyebrows. "And you haven't told your best friend about these recent developments?"

Bex laughed. "It's not what you think. Stiles, he….he just comes and talks to me. We usually fall asleep talking, that's all. You know that I would tell you." Lydia was her closest friend after Scott and Stiles. She could talk to her about everything that she couldn't talk to them about. After Allison died, it was hard on all of them, especially Lydia. They had become closer through that loss.

"So there's really nothing going on between the two of you? I doubt that." Lydia nodded knowingly as they walked down the hallway. "Stiles is practically in love with you.."

"It's complicated." Bex said slowly as she thought of their past kisses. They hadn't exactly came out and said that their relationship had changed, it was just simply there. It was known that they weren't just friends, but it wasn't clear if they were a couple or not. On any other occasion, it would be annoying, but with everything going on, she was fine with this. "It's a talk we've yet to have."

Lydia smirked. "I'm sure that it's one that he's eager to have." Bex nudged her as they walked into their math class. "I was serious about the concealer though. I'll help you after school." She patted her hand as they sat down.

"I'm guessing I don't have a say in the matter?" She guessed. Lydia smiled brightly, that was her answer. Bex was taking out her school work as she saw Stiles and Malia coming into the classroom.

"I hate math, it's pointless." Malia pouted as Stiles wheeled her into the classroom.

"School is important and math is essential." He explained as he sat next to Bex.

"To what?" Malia asked.

"Sit." Bex ordered her. Malia groaned and sat in front of Stiles. Lydia hid a smile. Between Bex and Stiles, they had basically taken over trying to comb her for their current society.

"Knowing how much to tip at restaurants." Stiles answered her question.

Lydia and Bex both shot him a look. Lydia new math well, but while Bex didn't like math she knew that it was important for a lot more things than simply trying to figure out what the tip at a restaurant should be. "And less important things like medicine, economics, engineering..." Lydia replied sarcastically.

"Tipping." Stiles stood by his first answer.

Ms. Fleming came into the room and started to write on the board. "Alright, volunteers to the board: Lydia, Malia, Diego and Bex." Malia looked up stunned.

"Um, I didn't volunteer." She tried to back out of it.

"You did now, to the board."

Malia growled out. Bex stood up and pulled her up with her as they walked over to the board. She didn't enjoy math either, but it didn't help if they tried to cause a scene. Malia needed to fit in so that she didn't get kicked out of school. Bex walked to her problem. Her brow furrowed in confusion. She must have missed a lot more of the material than she realized. Bex slowly tried working on the part of the problem that she did remember how to do.

Malia, however, we stuck. All she knew was that the answer would be equal to X, but she didn't know where to go from there. Lydia was already nearly done with her answer. "Did you go over the notes I gave you?" Lydia asked glancing at her frozen hand.

"I didn't understand them." Malia claimed.

"X equals 25." She muttered as she finished her problem. Malia let out a sigh of relief as she wrote it down. "And sweetheart, put away the claws." She suggested. Malia looked at her hand and realized that her claws had come out without her knowing .She quickly dropped the chalk."

Bex walked back over to her seat as soon as she was done. Ms. Fleming marked hers wrong along with other students. She sat back in her chair, annoyed. She got this question wrong and on her last test, she scraped by with a D. She needed to do better. Stiles looked over at her concerned before pulling out his phone to see a message about a triple homicide.

He jumped out of his seat as soon as class was over and pulled Bex with him. "Hey, what's going on?" She asked him as they walked down the hall. They ran straight into Kira and Scott. She had a feeling that he had already texted them while they were in class.

"There was a murder. Some guy slaughter almost an entire family with his axe." Stiles explained to all of them as they kept moving

Kira winced at that. "An axe murderer?"

"A family-murdering axe murderer." Stiles elaborated as he and Bex followed Kira and Stiles.

Scott pulled on the straps of his bag. "Yeah I already found out." He admitted as they stopped in front of his locker.

"Wait, what? How? You did?" Stiles asked.

"My mom called me, she knew we'd see it on the news. "Scott explained to him. Kira stood besides Bex, as they watched the two boys talk.

Stiles nodded. "Perfect. Let's go." He turned to leave, expecting to be followed, but Scott stopped him.

"Whoa, whoa. We've got Econ in five minutes." He reminded him of Finstock's class. He was ruthless when he wanted to be, which was nearly all the time and he didn't want to fall behind in any of his studies.

Stiles looked completely confused by his lack of enthusiasm of wanting to find whoever this guys was. "Alright. Did you completely forget the part about the family murdering axe murderer?" He asked him incredulously. This is what they did and he wanted to bail.

"Did you forget that your dad's the sheriff?" He counter argued. "They want us to stay out of it."

"Are you guys kidding me?" He looked at all of them. "There's a family murdering axe murderer and we're not going to do a thing about it?" He asked them. Stiles seriously couldn't believe they were going to actually just go to class.

"Maybe we should just let the adults handle it?" Kira suggested meekly.

Stiles opened his mouth, disbelieving what he was hearing from the two of them. "So two of you, just want to stay here, at school, go to class?" He repeated back exactly what they were saying. Stiles made a face turning away. "Never heard of anything so irresponsible in my life." He walked off and Bex followed him.

"See you at tryouts?" Scott called out, but Stiles just flailed his hands out.

"It's not the end of the world, Stiles. This is Beacon Hills. There will be other crazy things like this." Bex reminded him of the supernatural area in which they lived. "Besides, nobody needs to get behind on any other classes, especially when Scott is doing so well."

Stiles glanced at her. "Yeah, speaking of, what was that in class? You like completely drew a blank. Are you having difficulties in math? You know that I could always help you. I'm not Lydia good, but I could help. We could study tonight, if you want?" He suggested with a small smile.

"You're a lifesaver." Bex kissed his cheek. Stiles smiled as his ears turned pink, Bex didn't notice that he was still grinning ear to ear as she left him for the next class.